Shortly after departing for the Sun and Fun Fly-In Saturday morning, the Van's 35 amp alternator in my RV-4 failed after 260 hours of service. After landing I found that the alternator was completely locked up and the belt had burned up. I never smelled the belt burning as it slipped on the alternator pulley. When disassembled, the rear bearing was found to be completely destroyed. Both the inner and outer races were loose in the case and all the little ball bearings had fallen out. The rear case was wiped out and the rotor had contacted the stator. I cannot locate a like replacement due to the age of the alternator. After all it was for a 1976-79 Honda Civic CVCC without air conditioning . Rather than chase this I have decided to replace the alternator with either a B&C or Plane Power unit. Since the Honda alternator uses an external regulator, it looks like the B&C 40 amp unit would be a direct replacement as it is also setup for an external regulator. However, the plane Power 60 amp alternator is somewhat cheaper and more powerful. The down side is it has an internal regulator and will require re-wiring my electrical system to accept this. What are the pros and cons of these two systems? Are both units comparable in quality? Each of these cost about 10 times what the original alternator did so I am looking for the best bang for the buck.